House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Thursday rejected the possible calamitous effects a Donald Trump nomination could have on the Republican Party, arguing instead that the businessman and political newcomer may improve the chances of GOP House challengers in November.

Kevin McCarthy’s successful fundraising year was, in some part, due to the idea that he could become the next speaker of the House.

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By Jake Sherman 01/20/16 – 05:18 AM EST

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy raised more than $11 million last year, a sum that places him near the top of the Republican fundraising pyramid on Capitol Hill, according to sources familiar with his operation.

His rapid rise in House leadership has stalled, but allies including Paul Ryan are standing by him.

For the first time in his political career, Kevin McCarthy has tasted defeat. And for the first time, the House majority leader, who rocketed to No. 2 in leadership faster than many members land a committee chairmanship, is going to have to be content to stay where he is, possibly for years.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s stunning decision to drop out of the race to become the next speaker left Republicans in disarray Thursday, threatening to deepen long-standing fractures in the party just as Congress faces a string of fiscal and legislative deadlines.

Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, at a hearing last week, hopes to benefit from a push for new leadership in the House. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)

By Jennifer Steinhauer October 5, 2015

WASHINGTON — Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah, said Monday that he presumed that Representative Kevin McCarthy would be nominated as his party’s candidate for House speaker, but would fall short of the votes needed when all lawmakers cast ballots to replace John A. Boehner.

The last-minute move underscores frustration among some members of the Republican Conference with the current choices.

By Rachael Bade and John Bresnahan 10/02/15 – 01:46 PM EDT

House Oversight and Government Affairs Chairman Jason Chaffetz is planning to run for House speaker, taking on Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in what appears to be a long-shot bid to lead House Republicans, according to multiple sources.

Donald Trump is not sold on Kevin McCarthy as the next speaker of the House, calling into question the California Republican’s negotiating skills and his statement earlier this week regarding the House Select Committee on Benghazi and its effect on the candidacy of Hillary Clinton.

As House speaker, Kevin McCarthy would need to be cautious when using his clout to help California, an expert says. (Jacquelyn Martin / AP)

Politics By Michael Doyle mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com October 1, 2015

Bakersfield native poised to become second Californian in top House post

Bringing home the bacon made harder by earmark ban

Some California clout can be exercised quietly, behind the scenes

WASHINGTON — Bakersfield, Calif., native Kevin McCarthy will get a better salary, a bigger staff and a lot more clout on his state’s behalf when he becomes House speaker, as all in Congress now expect.

House Speaker-in-waiting Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield put his foot in his mouth in a big way Tuesday night in an interview with Sean Hannity in which he directly tied the Benghazi hearings — the longest in congressional history — to Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield listens as Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio speaks to reporters Tuesday after a House Republican Conference meeting. McCarthy is widely expected to succeed Boehner as speaker next month. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

By Noah Bierman September 29, 2015

When Kevin McCarthy spoke at a California Republican convention a few years ago, he regaled the crowd with stories about his tense relationship with Nancy Pelosi: The Democratic leader, he said, greeted him with a sneering “he-llo Kevin” every time she saw him, the way Jerry Seinfeld used to greet his nemesis, Newman.

House Speaker John Boehner flanked by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

By Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan 09/28/15 – 05:12 AM EDT

He’s the overwhelming favorite to replace John Boehner but the Freedom Caucus still presents a big hurdle.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy has glided to victory in each of his leadership races — one for majority whip, and two for majority leader — by simply winning the support of more than half the members of the Republican Conference.

Rep. Steve Knight (shown at right in 2014, when he was in the state Legislature, with State Sens. Andy Vidak, left, and Jerry Hill) has raised $432,640 as of June 30, much more than his three Democratic challengers. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

By Jean Merl July 16, 2015

The elections are more than a year away, but already, front-runners are emerging in some key California congressional contests, and most endangered incumbents are well ahead of their challengers in fundraising, campaign filings show.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield last month in Washington. At the time of his election last summer to the No. 2 post in the House, McCarthy had spent fewer than four full terms in Congress. He was the most junior person to reach a top leadership post since the early 19th century. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

By Noah Bierman and Evan Halper June 5, 2015

Rep. Kevin McCarthy celebrated his first election to Congress at an In-N-Out Burger, sipping sodas from paper cups at Formica tables with his wife and children. The understated evening fit perfectly into the Bakersfield Republican’s image as the son of a firefighter who started his first business, a deli, with proceeds from a winning lottery ticket.

McCarthy

By Josh Richman Friday, December 12th, 2014 at 11:57 am

A conservative super PAC is trashing House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, for helping pass the $1.1 trillion “CRomnibus” spending bill, which some say doesn’t do enough to roll back President Obama’s executive actions on immigration.

As the most severe winter storm in at least a half-decade bore down on California on Tuesday, 3,000 miles away in Washington, the House voted, largely along party lines, for a California drought relief bill.

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. — House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy landed here from Los Angeles with a bang: he bluntly warned that Republicans will blow the presidency in 2016 if they don’t make some radical changes – and quick.

Two Democrats are mounting their first re-election campaigns as GOP Rep. Ken Calvert seeks a 12th term.

Published: Oct. 20, 2014 Updated: 5:03 p.m.

Some are defending their seats for the first time. Others have been in Congress for years.

Regardless, incumbents in the 2014 Inland congressional races are favored to win re-election to two-year terms. They’ve raised more money than their challengers and, with one exception, represent districts friendly to their parties.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, last week became one of two people who primarily shape the legislative agenda for the Republican-controlled House. He raises big funds for GOP election campaigns around the country and will try to tape up a sometimes-fractured Republican Party.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Kevin McCarthy marked the start of his tenure as the No. 2 in House leadership with a prayer and a tweet: “Humbled & blessed to have my friend Pastor Roger Spradlin of Bakersfield deliver the opening prayer this morning.”

Kevin McCarthy, the newly minted House Majority Leader, rose speedily through the GOP ranks during his time as a California legislator – and used political instincts he honed in Sacramento to achieve power in Congress.

McCarthy’s promotion to House majority leader means more state influence.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Despite the coming exodus of three stars from California’s delegation, Kevin McCarthy’s elevation to the second-most powerful position in Congress marks a historical peak in the Golden State’s political clout.

As GOP leader in the Calif. House, Kevin McCarthy gave flowers to spouses and rewarded lawmakers for touch votes. (Drew Angerer/EPA)

Politics

By Aaron C. Davis June 21, 2014 at 7:56 PM

During his first year as the Republican leader in the California State Assembly, Kevin McCarthy sent flowers to the wife of a fellow GOP lawmaker in honor of the couple’s anniversary. The woman called her husband gushing over the bouquet — only to learn that he did not deserve the credit.

Raúl R. Labrador is gunning to make Thursday’s House GOP majority leader contest an electoral upset on par with Eric Cantor’s primary loss last week to Dave Brat. But Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy is not just trying to win the race — he wants to make a statement.

Congressman Kevin McCarthy

Melanie Mason June 13, 2014

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the leading contender to be the next House majority leader, slammed Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers Friday for striking a budget deal that includes hundreds of millions of dollars for the controversial high-speed rail project.

Updated 9:49 p.m. | Rules Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas has dropped out of the race to replace Eric Cantor as majority leader, helping clear a path for Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California to ascend to the No. 2 post in the House.

California’s Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) is a top contender to replace Eric Cantor (R-Virginia)

By Robert Costa June 11, 2014

Midnight had long since passed, but the lights were still on at the Capitol, where House Republicans were already planning — and tensely arguing about — how to move ahead amid the chaos of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s stunning primary loss.

The House majority whip from Bakersfield has often been unable to corral the tea party lawmakers he helped elect. But he defends the chaos, saying Congress no longer operates like it used to.

By Evan Halper October 4, 2013, 9:16 p.m.

WASHINGTON — For the first two years of Barack Obama’s presidency, Rep. Kevin McCarthy traveled the country recruiting and coaching anti-establishment, tea party-backed candidates for the 2010 election.

Labor unions are trying persuade McCarthy to support a pathway to citizenship.

By JAKE SHERMAN | 8/8/13 4:49 PM EDT

Labor unions say they are going to flood House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s Bakersfield, Calif., district on Wednesday, in an attempt to persuade him to support a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s undocumented immigrants.

There are the old standbys of sex, money and power in politics. But lately there’s a new addiction in the halls of power: a video series – fictional, of course – that stars power-hungry politicians, unethical journalists and a wily political insider who always seems to get what he wants.

Carla Marinucci

Carla Marinucci Updated 11:22 pm, Sunday, January 13, 2013

While California did not determine the outcome of the 2012 presidential election, the state had no shortage of political dramas last year, from the state’s budget woes to the debut of the “top two” primary election ballots that send candidates with the most votes, regardless of political party, to the general election in November.

McCarthy

PolitiCal On politics in the Golden State December 6, 2012 | 4:06 pm

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), the third-highest-ranking Republican in Congress, suggested on Thursday that the federal government should “cut its losses” and not provide any more money for the state’s high-speed rail program.

It’s been a grim couple of weeks for San Bernardino as city officials decided to declare a fiscal emergency and file for bankruptcy due to a cash-flow crisis and budget deficit. Still, even amid serious discussions, the council found a few moments to debate 19th Century military history at its July 10 meeting.

Echoing a phrase used by one public speaker, Councilman Fred Shorett suggested that this could be a “Waterloo opportunity” allowing the city to get its financial house in order.

McCarthy

By ALEX ISENSTADT | 4/3/12 11:30 PM EDT

As a fast-rising lawmaker early in his congressional career, Kevin McCarthy vigorously cultivated friends in the 87-member Republican freshman class, an effort that catapulted him into one of the most powerful positions in the House.

Now the ambitious California congressman is setting his sights on his home state, looking to rebuild a Republican Party in desperate need of repair.

McCarthy

By Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times November 23, 2011

California’s proposed bullet train, the nation’s largest public infrastructure project, has become the focus of an intense federal funding battle that could undermine its survival, as Republican leaders in Congress attempt to claw back as much as $3.3 billion in federal grants already approved for the start of construction next year.

SACRAMENTO – The California Republican Party dealt a major blow Sunday to an effort by the Kevin McCarthy-Mark Abernathy political organization to prevent a merger of two groups of young GOP activists.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Kevin McCarthy is a youthful-looking, silver-haired gent still finding his way as California’s highest-ranking GOP lawmaker.

Following some embarrassing new smudges on his Capitol Hill won-loss record, the Republican representing Bakersfield, in California’s southern Central Valley, must demonstrate anew the vote-wrangling skills demanded of him as House majority whip.

WASHINGTON – Bakersfield is in, the Bay Area is out. But California as a whole could hold its own in the new Congress that starts Wednesday.

The shifting Capitol Hill currents are summed up in the demotion of soon-to-be former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the ascension of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, as the next House majority whip.

Bakersfield — As we told you the other day in our profile, Bakersfield’s own Rep. Kevin McCarthy becomes the House Majority Whip at 9 a.m. (Left Coast time) Wednesday — the No. 3 Republican position. You can watch the swearing-in festivities streamed live here.

Kevin McCarthy went out of his way to campaign for colleagues, something they aren’t likely to forget.

By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times November 14, 2010

Reporting from Washington —

Rep. Kevin McCarthy wasn’t content to stay in his Bakersfield district this campaign season. Instead, he traveled to Frog Jump, Tenn., Lake Oswego, Ore., Sioux Falls, S.D., and dozens of other places to help elect fellow Republicans.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield is eyeing the post of majority whip. Others are expected to chair key panels. These moves could boost Democratic-leaning California’s clout among the new majority.

By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times November 3, 2010|5:25 p.m.

Reporting from Washington — Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield launched a bid Wednesday for majority whip, the third-ranking job in the new Republican-controlled House, as Rep. Ed Royce of Fullerton kicked off a campaign for the chairmanship of the Financial Services Committee.

If successful, the moves could further strengthen Democratic-leaning California’s clout among the new GOP majority.